He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. (Psalm‬ ‭112:7-8‬ ‭ESV‬‬)

No matter how terrible the news, the Lord will continue hold you up. He can carry you through any grief and comfort you through the harshest pain. The loss of my father was the most difficult season for me. I was only 17 and I really didn’t understand why this was happening to our family. The crisis threw us all into an emotional tailspin until we settled into our new home to establish new roots.

I honestly did not know what to do with myself and had no mentors to guide me through early adulthood. Thinking back, maybe I would have benefited from grief counseling? I basically stuffed my emotions and carried on trying to become someone of good use and earn a decent living. I enrolled into a junior college and started a long educational journey.

It wasn’t until I joined a men’s Bible study where my true healing started to gain momentum. I just felt the need to get connected after reading the Bible cover to cover. It was the greatest nudge that the Lord gave me because when I lost my dad, he gave me a bunch of other dads in this group.

Fast forward to today, I can say that God has pulled me through my grief and even redirected me from a destructive and senseless lifestyle. Age 17 was my anchoring experience and anger was my adversary. The Lord softened that with friends and family. My miracle is the transformation of me because God changed the way I think and showed me how to lean on him for nearly everything, especially during tough times.

Every personal victory is because of Jesus. And every answer to prayer he crafted just for me so I would continue to gain more confidence in him. The strengthening of my faith is preparation for tomorrow’s hardships; and as long his Holy Spirit remains in me, then I shall look forward to see him work everything for good.